The Third Boat by Leila Mackinlay (Ward Lock & Co. Ltd., I2s. 6d.) takes its title from a Manx superstition and this pleasant but somewhat fragmentary tale is rarely out of sight or sound of the sea. Moving from Morecambe Bay to the Isle of Man, with a brief visit to London, the story opens with a young authorintrigued by an old painting of a beautiful young woman. It traces the history of her family with more than one tragic incident and ends with the narrator falling in love with a descendant - the living image of the old portrait.

Life-boats figure prominently and there is much to interest anyone, who knows Morecambe Bay and the Isle of Man; and, indeed, those who do not..